Astorino: Fracking good for jobs, taxes; SAFE Act, Common Core must go

Friday

May 2, 2014 at 5:59 PM

By James Postjpost@the-leader.com

The Republican candidate for governor says the state can open its doors to fracking safely, and that New York will benefit from the experiences of other states like Pennsylvania in setting up a regulatory framework for the activity.Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino spoke Friday with The Leader on a number of issues of local interest, from fracking to property taxes and the NY SAFE Act.Astorino spent some time in Corning last week, walking down Market Street with state Sen. Tom O’Mara, R-Big Flats, and Assemblyman Phil Palmesano, R-Corning, and speaking with Corning Mayor Rich Negri along with some city residents.He said he’s felt very welcome both on the Corning trip and on his visits to Broome County, Chemung County and other areas of the Southern Tier.The top issue he said he’s heard from area voters: “Jobs, jobs, jobs.”“I was talking to people on Market Street (who said) they’re hurting,” Astorino said. “Taxes go up, the economy’s bad, there’s not a lot of jobs.”He pointed to a recent Gallup poll that indicated 42 percent of New York residents would leave the state if they could, and statistics showing 400,000 residents left the state in the last three years.That’s not entirely the result of high property taxes, he said, but cited a link between property taxes, bad business climate and high unemployment.While he acknowledged efforts to limit the growth of property taxes through the state’s two percent tax cap, “it is only half the equation.”The other half, mandate relief to cut the cost of running local government, is something he said Gov. Andrew Cuomo has “reneged” on the promise of addressing.That’s something that’s been repeated by local government officials over the last several years, particularly at the county level, where officials have said they feel strained by their funding obligations for the state’s Medicaid programs.And the recently approved plan to provide taxpayers with a rebate for property tax increases?“It’s a Band-Aid on a gushing wound,” Astorino said. “All it is, is a way to have Gov. Cuomo’s name and smiling face on a check just before election day.”He noted that in his own Westchester County, they’ve kept county taxes flat for four straight years.“In Westchester, (our budget is) actually lower today then when I walked in the door,” Astorino said. “Our unemployment is one of the lowest in the state.”One thing he said would help with both taxes and jobs: approving hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in New York.“Just look south, what’s going on in Pennsylvania, it’s a rebirth of that region,” he said. “It would put literally tens of thousands of people to work – all different skill levels, all different education levels.”Astorino acknowledged the concerns of environmentalists about impacts on water safety and quality, as well as concerns of Southern Tier businesses dependent on tourism revenue to make their living.“I think all these are concerns that are legitimate, and can be dealt with,” he said. “We do not want companies to come in, rape the land and leave. That’s not what’s going to happen. Public health will always be first and foremost in what we do.”He said the right approach is to make every effort to ensure safety, and then allow drilling to go forward.“We should do what 30 other states are already doing, and that’s work with our environmental groups, work with the business community and put the proper regulations and safeguards (in place) for the welfare of everyone,” he said.New York state will benefit from the fact that it’s delayed the approval of gas drilling, he said, by learning from the approaches, and the mistakes, of other states.“We are the last state to get into this, not the first,” Astorino said. “We will have learned from everyone else, what they’re doing right and wrong.”But overall, he said, “it is clean, it is reliable, it’s safe and it’s something that we should be moving forward with.”On other issues:• Common Core“This is a massive, untested educational experiment that will cost an enormous amount of money,” Astorino said.He withdrew his own children from the Common Core testing.“They didn’t take the ELA (English language arts) or the math,” he said.But although they weren’t taking the tests, they still had to participate in test preparation.“My kids have just spent the last six weeks of class time studying for the test,” he said. “They had no social studies, no science, they had limited music and art.”He said fundamentally the idea of the “federalization of education” was the wrong approach.“There is not a one-size-fits-all approach to educating children,” Astorino said.He also said he fears implementing the standards will ultimately make the public school system more expensive.“The federal funds have dried up,” he said. “Taxes are going to have to go up.”But he acknowledged the need for both higher standards in education, and for teacher evaluations.“We want high standards,” he said.The right approach, according to Astorino, is to seek out best practices in education from public, private and parochial schools across the country and use them to create a New York-specific model for educational improvement.• Drug lawsAstorino said while the government needs to get tougher on those who make and sell drugs, it also needs to work harder to help those with drug addictions.“You need a balance,” he said. “You need to have compassion for those who are addicted.”He said that while laws related to marijuana possession have been loosened, and state officials discuss the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes, it’s gotten harder to get treatment for addiction in the state.“The governor has drastically cut funding for mental health and drug prevention,” he said.• The N.Y. SAFE Act“It was a bad idea to start with,” Astorino said. “It should be completely repealed.”In the wake of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, he said, while the governor was working to pass “a bad law,” he worked with public agencies and non-profits in Westchester County to address systemic issues in mental health treatment.He said incidents like Sandy Hook were better addressed through improving mental health diagnosis and treatment than by “making law-abiding citizens into law-breaking citizens,” as he says the SAFE Act does.He called it a gun control law that “doesn’t make anyone any safer.”

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